The Bride in Abu Hussan story of the Enormous Fart. Arabian Nights 2015. (Continuation of making of)

After successfully making my Toile for the Brides outfit it was time to cut out the fabrics I would be using.

(Pattern pieces laid out on the red and orange fabric)

I had chosen soft furnishing fabrics for their weight and appearance and although I was originally wanting an overall 'red' looking outfit so to look traditional and in keeping with the colour of a bride in the Far East, the outfit has ended up mainly orange in colour, even making the red fabric I had chosen take on an orange glow.
The orange fabric I had chosen turned out to be a Sanderson fabric which normally retailed at £40 per metre but the piece I had found was an off cut of 4 metres which was sold to me for a bargain price of just £20  :-). It is possible the Sanderson's fabric could be silk or at least have a high percentage of silk in it.
I preferred the wrong side of the Sanderson's fabric as the pattern appeared stronger and bolder but the downside of using the wrong side of the fabric, which I did do, was that the loose threads would catch and snag, so I had to be exceptionally careful whilst stitching it with the machine. Unfortunately threads did snag but where possible I left these be if they were only slight and where a large snag occurred I trimmed it with scissors. I like the effect of the wrong side even with these problems.
I noticed if I held the fabric one way round if gave the appearance of pattern and background both being orange but when hung the other way it gave the appearance of the pattern being orange and the background had a slight hint of a gold sheen. I preferred the latter and chose to cut the fabric so hopefully the background gave the aura of the gold sheen. I felt this to be more in keeping with the correct chosen look of the Bride. I also felt it would be preferable alongside the red fabric I had chosen.
The red fabric also had a pattern on it and again I hung it in both directions to see how it looked and surprisingly decided to cut the pattern in the opposite direction that I had originally felt I would have it hang. I felt the direction I chose looked better on the extra long panel at the back of the Gown.
I had an idea that I would quilt the orange fabric panels but then decided rather than cut the 2 outer sleeve pieces in just the red fabric, to cut one in red and one in orange. This gave me the dilemma whether to still only quilt the orange fabric, thus having one outer sleeve quilted and one not, so I decided to quilt all of the red and orange fabric panels.

(Quilting of both fabrics. On the red I decided to do straight lines running in both directions to make diamond shapes with the pattern. On the orange I decided to select lines on the pattern and stitch them in gold, I repeated these lines throughout the pattern).

As I thought about the construction of the outfit I felt that it would be a good idea to quilt all the panels as this would give the whole garment more body and I felt sure would solve the problem of holding the sides out more to give a more bell shape which is what I wanted. As it is, I do feel now that the panels are sewn together, it does indeed give the outfit a much better shape with the way it hangs.
When cutting the pattern out on the fabric and not knowing how much the quilting may shrink the fabric against the pattern size I decided to add 3 inches around the whole pattern, I needed to add a seam allowance around the pieces anyway but this way I had allowed plenty to play with. Once I had quilted the pieces I realized that my allowances was much more than I needed as the quilting did not shrink the fabric by much at all.

(Quilted and lined outer sleeves)

I forgot to change the neckline of the pattern when I cut it out of the fabric (as I had decided that my neckline, like my sleeve, would show different layers of fabric to give a multi-layered look). This was ok. I went ahead and made the alterations later on once made up.
After I had cut out all of the pattern pieces and had quilted them, I realised that one of the small triangular panels (no.5) had been cut with the pattern running in the wrong direction. Thankfully it was a small piece of red fabric, so the stitching was far more simpler than if it had been the orange fabric. I just cut another piece and quilted that one.
I stitched all the pieces together but originally stitched up one side seam differently to the other side thus making the armholes a different size. I un-stitched the smaller armhole side and re-stitched it to be the same size as the opposite side. The pattern on the back panel allowed me to line the sleeve hole up to the same place the correct armhole was.
When all the panels were stitched together and hung on the mannequin (without the sleeves) the whole appearance was puffy and bulky and the pieces did not lay flat.

(Looking 'puffy')

 I decided to stitch on the outside in gold embroidery thread to hold the seams open, This gave the outfit a much flatter appearance and definitely a preferable one.

(Seams stitched down, thus giving a much flatter appearance)

I next cut the sleeves out in 3 different fabrics. Unfortunately I did not have enough of the beige, under fabric, so had to cut one sleeve out in 2 different pieces of fabric and stitch them together. This did not matter as due to the other 2 outer pieces of the sleeve covering up the incorrect piece of fabric, so it could not been seen on the final sleeve.

(All the sleeve pieces cut out)

(One sleeve had to be cut in 2 different fabrics and stitched together as I did not have enough of the beige fabric. I was always having to swop the thread colours and bobbins in the sewing machine as I was working with many different fabric colours).

I stitched all the pieces of the sleeves separately and slotted them one inside the other then stitched them together and fixed them to the robe. The blue fabric I puffed up and gathered and stitched half way up the sleeve, I also put pieces of small cut out pieces of wadding inside, between the beige inner sleeve and the blue middle sleeve, so the blue fabric would remain puffed looking whilst worn and not fall flat. I wanted them to stand out and be noticeable.

(One sleeve finally attached to the gown).

I decided to line the outer pointy sleeve with a gold lining fabric as I wanted a nicer finish than the wadding. It is possible that the underneath could be seen and the wadding did not look appropriate. The gold lining gave it a much more regal finish. Again I stitched around the outside edge with gold embroidery thread to give a nice finish and a flatter look to the bulky fabrics.

I also zig zagged around all the rough edges of the fabric pieces before stitching them together so to help prevent them from fraying.

The whole development of this costume has been one that has evolved whilst continually working on it. My decisions and thoughts have grown, changed and evolved throughout the whole process. It has not been an outfit made with a set of instructions to follow, I have had to think, make decisions and adapt along the whole journey. I have designed and created the whole Gown from scratch and I am very pleased with all my efforts and have a sense of achievement that I am proud of. Having said this though not everything has gone to my liking and I feel I would need to look at my pattern and make alterations if I was to make this outfit again. I am not happy with how one side seems to hang lower than the other side and I just cannot seem to match up the front panel from top to bottom against the inside panel, top to bottom.

Whilst working on my outfit, which I am making for my Costume Construction Unit, I have also had to oversee the making of all my other designs for the Arabian Nights Play by the 1st year makers. I have had to attend their fittings, advice and generally be involved with the process of their construction also.

I cut out the under frill in sections, on a curve, in the beige fabric and stitched them together. I cut the blue frill in rectangular lengths across the width of the fabric, cutting several pieces and stitching them all together to make a length twice as long as the beige under frill. I then ran a gather stitch along the whole length so as to gather it and pinned the gathered panel onto the under frill. I stitched these 2 together.

(Cutting the under frill on a curve to follow the curved line of the top outer garment and adding the gathered blue frill).

I had found some white cotton, broderie anglaise trim and had Lois and Natasha dye it for me a purple/ burgundy colour. This trim was then attached to the under frill so that it showed below the gathered blue frill. I also added this trim to the sleeve below the blue middle sleeve and also around the neckline.

(Adding the trim to the sleeve and the under frill).

(The dress finally coming together and taking shape).

I added a red bead trim around the lower edge of the outer top garment and around the pointy outer sleeve. I machined and hand stitched this trim on. I also added these beads around the neckline.

I then had to work on the neckline by cutting some of the quilted fabric away. I did this as I had forgotten to adjust the pattern before I had cut it out in the final fabric and I wanted the neckline look as if you could see the other layers of the outfit.

(Cutting away some of the quilted fabric around the neckline).

(Attaching the blue frill, trim and beige under garment to the neckline. One side added, one side to go)

I decided to add a lining to the whole outfit to finish off the inside so as to hide the wadding and give the outfit a professional finish. I also decided to add the lining so I could attach the under frill to the lining and not to the top outer garment. The reason behind this was I wanted the outer top garment to look as if it was separate from the under garments and I did not want a stitch line around the outer garment.

(Cutting out the pattern in pale yellow lining fabric).

After stitching the lining together I attached the frill onto the lining and then attached the lining to the inside of the garment. I zig zagged around all the rough edges and stitched the seams down to give added strength to the seams. I did this as the lining had to take the weight of the frill, which was considerably heavy as there was a lot of fabric. I then started by hand stitching the back neckline to the outer garment then I stitched, by machine, around both of the arm sleeves. After doing this I secured the lining by machine stitching down the 2 back panel seams and also down 2 of the diagonal seams on the side. Again I did this to give support and strength to the lining fabric which is holding all of the weight of the frill.

I have had some difficulty in fixing the lining in places without ruching the outer garment but after putting the outfit on a mannequin and working slowly and taking care not to pucker the fabric I have managed to pin the lining in place.

The frill does look slightly lower on one side than the other, even though I carefully measured and pinned the frill onto the lining evenly. I feel this is due to the outer garment appears to hang lower on one side than the other, which I mentioned about earlier on. If this pattern was to be used again I would have to make adjustments to it I feel. Having said this I am sure the overall look of the outfit when being worn will be fine without having to be too concerned with having to make alterations at this stage.

I have also stated to glue, using super glue, small orange jewels to the red fabric to lift the flatness of the fabric and make it sparkle and give it a more special look. 

I also added gold sequins to around the neckline to lift the red beads around the neckline on the advice of my Tutor.

More to come on the finished outfit on another blog page soon :-).

 

Arabian Slippers for Arabian Nights 2015

Below are 6 pairs of Arabian Slippers made for Arabian Nights Play being performed in February 2015.
All have been made by me using machine embroidery and lurex machine embroidery thread. Non slip rubberized fabric has been used for the soles for safety reasons so the Actors do not slip on the stage. Each slipper has been stitched 3 times around the base for added strength. The slippers have been made with felt and has wadding between the outer and inner layers including the sole.